1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of audio and audio/video equipment including compact disc (CD) players. More particularly, this invention relates to a CD changer which can access a database which is user searchable and updated upon recognition of an unknown CD. This invention is particularly useful for multiple CD changers which serve to store substantial numbers of compact discs. In addition, this invention provides a mechanism for computer control of the operation of the CD changer.
2. Background of the Invention
Several large capacity compact disc players are currently available commercially. For example, Sony Corporation, Tokyo, Japan produces several such players such as the model CDP-CX100 and the CDP-CX153, available through Sony Electronics Inc., 1 Sony Drive, Park Ridge, N.J. 07676. Each of these players includes an internal rotary table with 100 slots which can store up to 100 compact discs. Players with even higher storage capacity will no doubt appear in the future. Compact disc players of this nature are commonly used to not only play compact discs, but also as a convenient mechanism for storing such discs in a very neat and compact arrangement.
In earlier compact disc players which only hold one or a few discs, the compact discs are commonly stored in their protective jewel case. Such jewel cases generally include an insert provides a written directory for each disc which generally lists in order the selections available on the disc and often includes play times and other information regarding each selection (e.g. artist, title, author, etc.). Such information facilitates the listener's selection of the desired track or disc.
Unfortunately, this information may not be as readily available to the user of a CD player which is used as a storage device such as the above-mentioned high capacity CD players. Since users commonly use such players to store the compact discs, they also frequently store the jewel case and related informational inserts in a less convenient location. Moreover, the user must know not only the disc which he desires to play, but the location of the disc in the rotary table and perhaps a track number in order to readily access a particular chosen selection. In addition, it is difficult for the user to have a clear overview of the musical selections available and to control the play of such selections.
This problem has been partially addressed in the above Sony disc players by providing the user with the ability to program the disc player to store identifying information for each disc in the player's memory and to categorize discs into a number of groups of the user's selection (e.g. jazz, classical, Rock, etc.). These multiple CD changers utilize a portion of the table of contents (TOC) data for uniquely identifying each compact disc stored therein. In particular, the total music play time and the number of movements (typically songs) as indicated in the TOC is used in some changers to uniquely identify the discs. Compact disc changers also include a feature known as "Custom File" which is described in Japanese patent application publication number 03-76082 which is incorporated herein by reference. While this technique is helpful in locating a desired selection, the user still has only limited access to the available information relating to the disc. For example, there is no information available on the specified tracks on the disc, artist, etc. unless this information is used to identify the entire disc. Moreover, all such information must currently be entered by the user using a remote control or jog dial to cycle through available characters. The process of entering such data is somewhat inconvenient (especially for large numbers of discs) and thus often omitted by the user. Furthermore, the user of such players are currently restricted to controlling the discs using stored parameters (e.g. level and sound field selections) on a disc by disc basis without regard for the content of individual tracks on the disc.
While variations of compact disc format might permit various information about the disc to be included on the disc itself in machine readable form, there exists a large body of work which has no such identification information. Thus, there is a need to provide the user with access to an equivalent body of information to use, particularly in connection with high capacity multiple disc players.
The present invention addresses these problems by providing a database of the information for access by the user to provide searchable access to the information which and the ability to download such information. This minimizes and in most cases eliminates the need for data input by the user.